Space Stuff and Launch Info

[Jonathan Scott]

According to Spacenews:

NASA said late Sept. 17 that engineers analyzed data from Cygnus and found that the thruster worked as intended during those burns. The engine shut down prematurely on two non-sequential burns when a “conservative safeguard in the software settings” triggered a warning system and shut down the thruster.

My non-expert guess would be that some temperature parameter was exceeded as a result of the longer burn needed for the heavier XL version.

 

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Themis has arrived at its launch pad
Themis is Europe's (ESA+Arianespace) main reusable booster development project. This first vehicle (T1H) is built for shorter hops, similar to SpaceX's Grasshopper in 2012/2013. The successor (T1E) is expected make higher altitude flights (~kilometers, probably), and the successor of that (T3) will have three engines, enough to make flights similar to an orbital launch. Once that works, Arianespace might develop a full rocket with a reusable booster. It's not a fast program and it's 10 years late, but there is progress.

 

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SpaceX works towards upper stage landings.
The reentry trajectory has to go over Mexico, SpaceX chose a path that avoids major population centers to minimize risk. It's close to the US border and might be visible from the southwestern US.
That corridor needs a launch to ~32 degrees inclination, which either has to go further south (overflying Jamaica) or north (overflying Florida) than current missions.

SpaceX and the FAA estimate that between 7 and 400 flights will be delayed or make detours for the launch and landing. It depends on the launch time, the trajectory, and the duration of the restrictions.

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During the most recent New Shepard launch, Blue Origin had a free-flying camera capturing stage separation. Video here, and cleaned up image here:

 

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NASA announced its 2025 selection of new astronauts.
Most of them come from the US military, one is a geologist, one is an engineer. And one is an astronaut with spaceflight experience already. Huh?

Anna Menon started at NASA, working as a biomedical flight controller to support astronauts. She then became an engineer at SpaceX, developing crew operations for Dragon and guiding astronauts and their families. Isaacman then selected her to fly on Polaris Dawn, the mission with the first privately organized spacewalk. Now she returns to NASA. Previous spaceflight experience must have made her application truly outstanding.
This is the first time NASA trains a "new" astronaut who has already been to orbit. Maybe she can skip some of the training.

Her husband Anil Menon was selected as NASA astronaut in 2021. He hasn't been to space yet but he is assigned to Soyuz MS-29, planned for June 2026.

 

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Dream Chaser's first flight will not go to the ISS
For a long time it was planned to. First the launch date kept shifting, now the scope of the mission was reduced while shifting the launch date even more. NASA also cancelled the contracted minimum number of missions. They must have seen some serious issues.

 

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SpaceX is targeting October 13 for the next Starship flight
It will reuse the booster from flight 8. Most of the engines (24 out of 33) will be reused, too.

They'll test more tile configurations and a modified booster landing procedure, but the overall flight profile is the same as for flight 10.

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Firefly experienced an "event" in a booster test. And by "event", they mean the booster exploded. Video:

 

[nsaspook]

SpaceX is targeting October 13 for the next Starship flight
It will reuse the booster from flight 8. Most of the engines (24 out of 33) will be reused, too.

They'll test more tile configurations and a modified booster landing procedure, but the overall flight profile is the same as for flight 10.

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Firefly experienced an "event" in a booster test. And by "event", they mean the booster exploded. Video:

The video looks like that 70's series, Salvage One.

 

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8.5 hours until the next flight of Starship (launch window opens 23:15 UTC, it is now 14:45 UTC). Live coverage will be here: https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-11

The first booster catch, with flight 5, was exactly 1 year _{and 2 hours} ago. Since then we had two more booster catches, one booster reuse, and this upcoming flight will also reuse a booster.

SpaceX also wants to launch a Falcon 9 mission with Kuiper satellites while Starship is in flight. The launch teams are independent, but I wonder who has to host the webcast for that launch?

 

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8.5 hours until the next flight of Starship (launch window opens 23:15 UTC, it is now 14:45 UTC). Live coverage will be here: https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-11

A full success.

They tested a banking maneuver late into the reentry. During the flight I assumed that was just to improve the landing accuracy, but TheSpaceEngineer studied the cloud patterns to estimate the trajectory. It's a pretty big deviation - almost a 90 degree turn.
The same maneuver would make it avoid the larger towns near the launch site.

 

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The second New Glenn sits on the launch pad carrying ESCAPADE, two small spacecraft that want to go to Mars. Originally this was supposed to be the maiden flight in an October 2024 launch window but the rocket wasn't ready. Now the plan is to launch it, keep it near Earth for a year, and then effectively catch the 2026/2027 transfer window.

A launch attempt a few hours ago was cancelled due to bad weather, a boat in the exclusion zone and issues with the ground equipment. At least everyone can blame some other reason now!

New Glenn was designed with a reusable booster. During the first flight, the booster broke up on reentry, but if things go well they can land this one.

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Due to the US government shutdown, commercial launches are now limited to the nighttime when there are fewer aircrafts to reroute. I assume NASA's ESCAPADE counts as government launch but I'm not sure (edit: confirmed, they are allowed to launch during the day). It needs to launch during the day. SpaceX will try to launch at night as much as possible. That's not ideal for the orbit distribution of Starlink but they can launch more during the day after the shutdown is over to compensate.

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Vast's Haven Demo was launched a week ago. It is testing critical components for the company's planned private space station Haven-1. It seems to work well and Vast released a video.. Haven-1 is mostly assembled and could launch as early as May 2026. Even if it gets delayed it has a good chance to be the first one - no one else seriously plans a commercial space station launch before 2027.

 

[Borg]

On November 13, 2026, Voyager 1 Will Reach One Full Light-Day Away From Earth - nearly 5 decades after it was launched.

https://www.iflscience.com/on-novem...each-one-full-light-day-away-from-earth-81432

 

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A full success for New Glenn. Here is a replay. Launch at 1:43:00, booster landing at 1:52:00, payload separation around 2:16:40.

They had amazing tracking shots of the booster throughout reentry. The live video broke up during the final seconds, that's something we saw with early SpaceX landings as well, but the booster landed.

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SpaceX can't launch before 10 pm local time, so they scheduled two launches for 10:01 (in 21 hours): Starlink and Starlink. It's likely that one of them will be delayed by half an hour, however.
Edit: One of them was shifted by 3 hours.